ALM Motorsport’s Mike Halder set the overall pace in Friday’s two free practice sessions for the TCR Europe series at the Hungaroring, lapping the Budapest track in 1 minute 51.800 seconds in the afternoon session.
The Honda driver finished over half a second ahead of team-mate Ruben Volt in the later session, with Volt’s time also being better than the top time in first practice.
It had earlier been Felipe Fernández who set the pace in Free Practice 1, but the RC2 Racing Team driver was just 16th in second practice, after lapping over two seconds slower than he had done earlier in the day.
Monlau Motorsport’s Adam Shepherd was third quickest, although on combined times he was fifth behind both Fernández and Monlau’s Marco Butti.
Solite Indugo Racing’s Junui Park went fourth fastest in FP2, ahead of BRC Racing’s Alex Ley and team-mate Gabriele Covini, whilst Butti was seventh in the later session.
Championship leader Nicolas Taylor, who was 13th in FP1, improved later in the day to go almost nine tenths of a second quicker than his earlier effort, concluding FP2 in eighth albeit over a second off the pace, despite running with 40 kg of compensation weight.
Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 10:50 CEST on Saturday (09:50 BST).
Free Practice 1 result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 19 |  |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 1:52.322 | – |
| 2 | 111 |  |
Marco BUTTI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 11 | 1:52.338 | 0.016 |
| 3 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 1:52.780 | 0.458 |
| 4 | 37 |  |
Victor CHAN Chun Leung | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 1:52.987 | 0.665 |
| 5 | 76 |  |
Alex LEY | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 1:52.991 | 0.669 |
| 6 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 13 | 1:53.613 | 1.291 |
| 7 | 87 |  |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:53.816 | 1.494 |
| 8 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 1:53.867 | 1.545 |
| 9 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 1:53.897 | 1.575 |
| 10 | 22 | |
Giacomo PRANDELLI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 1:53.899 | 1.577 |
| 11 | 12 | |
Gabriele COVINI | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 1:53.946 | 1.624 |
| 12 | 97 | |
Junesung PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 1:53.989 | 1.667 |
| 13 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 1:54.087 | 1.765 |
| 14 | 7 |  |
Mike HALDER | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 1:54.247 | 1.925 |
| 15 | 117 | |
Adam SHEPHERD | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 14 | 1:54.403 | 2.081 |
| 16 | 85 |  |
Tiago PERNÍA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 11 | 1:54.680 | 2.358 |
| 17 | 69 |  |
Max HART | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:55.025 | 2.703 |
| 18 | 46 |  |
János CSIK | Speed Technika | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 1:55.555 | 3.233 |
| 19 | 73 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 1:55.651 | 3.329 |
| 20 | 72 | |
Sandro PELATTI | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 12 | 1:57.015 | 4.693 |
Free Practice 2 result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 7 | |
Mike HALDER | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:51.800 | – |
| 2 | 27 | |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:52.303 | 0.503 |
| 3 | 117 | |
Adam SHEPHERD | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 13 | 1:52.350 | 0.550 |
| 4 | 87 | |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:52.484 | 0.684 |
| 5 | 76 | |
Alex LEY | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 1:52.617 | 0.817 |
| 6 | 12 | |
Gabriele COVINI | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 1:52.786 | 0.986 |
| 7 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 14 | 1:53.150 | 1.350 |
| 8 | 17 | |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 1:53.156 | 1.356 |
| 9 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 1:53.397 | 1.597 |
| 10 | 85 | |
Tiago PERNÍA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 11 | 1:53.801 | 2.001 |
| 11 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 14 | 1:53.951 | 2.151 |
| 12 | 69 | |
Max HART | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 1:54.199 | 2.399 |
| 13 | 97 | |
Junesung PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:54.220 | 2.420 |
| 14 | 37 | |
Victor CHAN Chun Leung | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 14 | 1:54.269 | 2.469 |
| 15 | 73 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 1:54.483 | 2.683 |
| 16 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 14 | 1:54.527 | 2.727 |
| 17 | 22 | |
Giacomo PRANDELLI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:54.613 | 2.813 |
| 18 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 12 | 1:54.936 | 3.136 |
| 19 | 72 | |
Sandro PELATTI | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 12 | 1:55.686 | 3.886 |
| 20 | 46 | |
János CSIK | Speed Technika | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 1:55.906 | 4.106 |